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TrackMania United Forever is such a bizarre game. In the best sense, of course. I don't ever sit down and think "You know what, I'm going to pour an hour into this", it just sort of happens. But when it does and I find a server with some ace tracks, magic just happens. It's a wonderful game and I recommend anyone who likes the purest feeling of racing games to go download United Forever on Steam. There's a pay-for version and a free version with limited access, but the limited access is where the majority play, so all the pay-for people create content usually for this, so you're barred from very, very little.

I don't know how many others feel about it. It's obviously played a lot, but I seldom see mention of it. I guess I'm not the only one who unintendedly plays it.

I play Trackmania now and then. Haven't for a while, but was delighted when I realized I had an arcade racing game available for free on Steam. Now and then I make ridiculous tracks, too, including some that are far too long for that game. Its fun to toy around with and just...drive. Can get lost in that game, now and then.

But for this weekend? Going to begin my first every Mass Effect playthrough, with the first game.

So I'm 3/4 way through Deus Ex: HR. I originally started it when it came out, but got bored and quit sometime in the middle of detroit. Anyhow, my impressions of it having almost completed it are more or less the same as when it initially came out: a perfectly adequate game, but SOOOOOO overrated.

The worlds have nice art direction, but feel really dead to me because there aren't many NPCs to talk to. The stealth gameplay is well made for a stealth game, but nothing revolutionary (it would have been nice, for example, if they had done something like have the enemies wake up after a period of time as everyone sleeping for hours after you choke them for a few seconds get's a bit silly). There aren't nearly enough upgrades to unlock and most do fairly mundane things so other than the main choice between "stealth" or "kill everyone" there really is not a whole lot of variety in possible character builds. The boss fights are terrible (but enough have been said about that). The graphics downright suck--especially character models. At times it looks like a 5 or 6 year old game rather than something that came out last year.

But worst of all the writing is really nothing special at all. It's adequate for a video game, nothing more, and at times (especially in some of the ways that they hamfistedly insert side quests in an awkward way) it's down right not very good.

ANyhow, despite my ciriticisms I do think it's an adequate enough game and a much better successor to the original than its sequel was (plus, I do like the hacking mini-game--which says alot as usually hacking mini-games are the worst parts of any game). However, when it comes to ranking the best games of 2011 this has nothing on Witcher 2 (it probably wouldn't even make my top 5).

I've currently got four games on the blend. I've returned to Trine after a lengthy hiatus, to prepare for a co-op run of the sequel with my chums. I'm quite enjoying Legend of Grimrock, although I'm not rushing through it, and I've been utterly charmed by the lovely Stacking. I've also started playing a hot new game called Left 4 Dead with three good buddies. None of us have played it before, but we've discovered it's bloody brilliant. Better late than never, eh?

I've also played as a less than lethal brawler. Tranq darts, stun gun and punch up the face. But no sneaking! It's actually hard to resist tucking your head in, and I desperately needed more cereal bars. Where is a Holland and Barrett when you need one?

Slight boss battle spoilers.
Boss 1,stun gun until win.
Boss 2,land mines and then stun gun until win.
Boss 3 OHKO(look it up on youtube) or heavy machingun and grenade blindfire.
Boss 4,quick hack/keycode and a burst of laser.

The real last boss was obviously the conversation with [redacted] in the control room.

I've also played as a less than lethal brawler. Tranq darts, stun gun and punch up the face. But no sneaking! It's actually hard to resist tucking your head in, and I desperately needed more cereal bars. Where is a Holland and Barrett when you need one?

Slight boss battle spoilers.
Boss 1,stun gun until win.
Boss 2,land mines and then stun gun until win.
Boss 3 OHKO(look it up on youtube) or heavy machingun and grenade blindfire.
Boss 4,quick hack/keycode and a burst of laser.

The real last boss was obviously the conversation with [redacted] in the control room.

Think I played similar - sneaking around but taking out anyone I found via punching, tranquilizing or stunning (or silenced pistol to the face, if they had been a dickbag).
My boss fighting was less well-refined though:
B1 - shot in the face and grenaded
B2 - tested my Typhoon
B3 - ran around other side of central divide, dumped a load of the remote detonated devices on the ground, exploded them when he hopped the divide.
B4 - running and gunning.

Left 4 Dead is so fun. 2 is the technically better game but 1's atmosphere is unsurpassed. Daytime doesn't fit as well IMHO.

There's a night time version of The Parish, called quite appropriately Dark Parish. I haven't played it myself, but it's supposedly quite good. It does make a few adjustments to the gameplay of the original map though.

Left 4 Dead is so fun. 2 is the technically better game but 1's atmosphere is unsurpassed. Daytime doesn't fit as well IMHO.

I love L4D2. When you get a good group of people, its one of the greatest multiplayer experiences that i've ever played. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone else who plays it. Really wish that RPS had some group around that game.

I'm soaring around the maps in Tribes:Ascend, but I'm also having doubts about the unlock system that Hi-Rez have adopted.

The problem is that there are a number of guns which appear to be straight upgrades from the default ones, which you can purchase using real money. These guns can also be unlocked by playing the game and accumulating XP points - if you don't want to spend any money - but the difference is that the XP prices of most of the weapons are astronomical.

I hate to label the game as 'pay 2 win' because it feels like a cheap shot and I do really like it, the movement is spot-on and high speed flag chasing is exhilarating. I just wish the devs would have looked at a different unlock model, or at the very least slash the prices on some of the weapons.

I've also been playing the absolutely wonderful Vessel. It's a superb puzzle platformer whose liquid-themed problems require a bit of thought to solve. It reminds me a bit of Braid, in that the puzzle solutions make you feel like a genius when you finally work them out.

It's quite lengthy too, I've played it for about five hours and I think I'm just at the halfway point. The physics, art, music just all all contribute to a wonderful experience. One of my games of the year so far for sure.

Originally Posted by Woundedbum

Left 4 Dead is so fun. 2 is the technically better game but 1's atmosphere is unsurpassed. Daytime doesn't fit as well IMHO.

I agree with you, but since they've ported over the original maps into L4D2 you can have the benefits of both in one game. I like the way they improved some of the crescendo events from L4D1 when they were ported over too. (Think the ending of the Barns from 'Dark Carvinal').